The Sisters Brothers

Enjoyable and engaging- the premise is both fun and refreshing, galloping after a couple of brothers and their precarious relationship as opposed to heroes and damsels and romances. I enjoyed taking in the trek through their eyes, different as they are. What bothered me was the ending. At first the brothers serve as good foils, both being murderers, but one being more sentimental. By the end, they've both given and taken and nearly ended up the same person, which is to say, the one loses appetite for blood, and the other loses sensitivity and even forgets people that had once been important to him with a calloused laugh. The problem is these losses aren't compensated for with anything tangible, which is unfortunate. The setting also bordered mystic and realistic, with the spinning of a gypsy and curse and but no real cohesive closure of the two. It still was worth reading and a fun ride.

The Sisters Brothers was an entertaining Western. Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired guns working for the Commodore out of Oregon City. They are sent on a mission to California to take care of a gentlemen that the Commodore wants killed. As they travel, they meet many interesting characters and are involved in many misadventures.

I liked the book, but I thought I would like it better. It made the short list for the Man Booker Prize and won several Canadian literary prizes. This book was good, but by no means spectacular.

I bought "The Sisters Brothers" based on a recommendation from a buddy at work. I loved reading this book! Like the cover says, it's what Cormac McCarthy might write if he had a sense of humor. Two eloquent, thoughtful, hired killers work their way through the Oregon & California wilderness to find their target. It is all things-- dark, humorous, mystical, bizarre, adventurous.

There's little way to describe The Sisters Brothers without invoking Charles Portis's great True Grit, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, both are Westerns with a bit of a revisionist/unique perspective, and both share a similar voice - an intelligent, slightly wordy, slightly awkward tone. But while that forms the obvious reference point, it doesn't really begin to describe the charmingly odd Sisters Brothers, which follows our titular brothers (whose last name is Sisters) as they make their way across the wilderness to track down a man for their boss. The brothers are guns for hire, you see, and they're exceptionally dangerous ones, and that might lead you to expect something incredibly violent, something akin to Unforgiven. Instead, The Sisters Brothers is wonderfully unpredictable, meandering its way through fancy dinners, unsettling witchcraft, mangled horses, possible alchemy, and so much more. But more than that, the book is anchored by the voice of its narrator, Eli Sisters, a man who's never quite comfortable in the role that fate has cast him in. Indeed, no matter what strange situation the brothers find themselves in, much of the joy of the book comes from Eli's musings and discussions, whether it's his considering of a diet to impress women, his deep love of toothpaste, or his odd kinship with the horse he sort of hates. Yes, The Sisters Brothers is a bit meandering, to put it mildly; it's very much a book that's more about the journey than the destination, and even if that final chapter is kind of beautiful, it's clear that the book is more about enjoying all of the incidents that make it up. But while that occasionally makes the whole feel like a little less than the sum of the parts, it's hard to detract from the great writing, the compelling characters, the rich setting, and the great episodes that keep the book moving along. It's a book that feels of a piece with True Grit, and especially the Coen brothers' wonderful take on the novel.

This promising book revealed storytelling at its best. Engaging characters. Winsomely told. Complex, thoughtful storyline. Family, purpose, loss, adventure, and life are all written about in grand style.

The tight focus on the Sisters Brothers makes it easy to realize these are not extraordinary men. They are not people who made the best of a bad situation. They are very ordinary, very, very human, and they probably know it. Most of the settlements in the far west don't know that, and the reputation of the Sister Brothers often precedes and exceeds them. The book has a dour tone which reflects the conditions and surroundings of the anti-heroes, but a discerning reader finds the hope and humor inside the head of Eli Sisters.

I downloaded The Sisters Brothers for a family vacation and It turned out to be the perfect vacation read. Suspenseful, introspective, and tragic, the story is one of the Old West, brandy and whores and panning for gold--but not from the heroes side. Told
From the perspective of the younger and more philosophical brother, the tale of two men good at one thing dealing with life out West is as American as can be.

I chose this story because it won an award, (which usually means too artsy for me). I read prolifically and this book suddenly became a favourite because there aren't any dead pages where I am bored waiting to get somewhere. The genre/writing style match is quirky and unique. The story evolves insight to the characters at perfect pace. Perfect balance of keeping the reader in the moment while anticipating the future. I feel I learned something about writing. Sadly, disappointed by the end for all of that.

This is my first dabble in the cowboy noir genre. I have to admit that I didn't know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. While it's true that there is a good amount of grit and gore throughout the story, I didn't think it was gratuitous. I've read reviews that didn't like the ending, but I liked it.

Be ready for serious and troubling introspection after you find yourself laughing out loud while reading this rollicking adventure book involving murder, animal cruelty and witchcraft, among other matters. The eponymous siblings, killers by profession, are cowboys sent on a cross country mission to murder a California gold miner, and hilarity ensues. See what I mean? I am so ashamed of loving this book and so will you be. Mea culpa.

"The Sisters Brothers" was released to great reviews. On the back of such recommendations, I bought the book some time ago. It has taken me a while to get into this unusual account of criminal life occasioned by the opportunities for illicit wealth creation during the California gold rush. Patrick de Witt is a good story teller and his plot and character development unfold very cleverly. The more I got to know the hired guns Charlie and Eli Sister, the less I liked them and this feeling of discomfort grew throughout the book as their schemes for self advancement got more violent and more gruesome. There is no one to like in this book filled with a bizarre cast of characters that would keep a whole conference hall of psychiatrists busy for weeks. However, justice of sorts is delivered in the end and de Witt's literary talents are sufficient to keep even the more sensitive of his readers along until the end of this wild ride.

The brothers are a balance of plausible opposites just like a buddy movie. The tone is dark, like all hip novels these days. Paradise is not hip. The inferno is hip. So we are in the inferno. The dialogue is glib and sparse in order to show the derangement of persons from the moral implications of their actions. These days this is called irony. And it is held if high esteem. The abstention from moral examination is considered very folksy and charming. The setting is the west of cowboys. You can tell because there are horses and guns and prostitutes and so forth. So you know you are in the west. You've been here many times before. Each time has been more or less in the formula. The western formula is somewhat variated here. Again in that charming folksy ironic way that you are just going find outrageously funny. But maybe not. Also Charming and folksy will be the maudlin philosophy of the narrator who, apparently absent from any consideration of his violent actions, is given to fine american-type folksy humor. Mark Twain would love this guy! Or maybe not. And actually, don't buy this book. Buy Mark Twain's Autobiography. Its got more humor in five pages than this whole book. Its far more droll, folksy, american, ironic, charming, and its actually funny, its very hip, its completely subversive and quite a bit of it addresses issues of morality and violence directly. So have some fun with your life.

The Sisters Brothers is a genre-bending western that was short-listed for this year's Man Booker Prize. It didn't win. I can't say if this is just or not, as I haven't read any of the other books on the list, but this book was certainly worthy.

I'll warn you there will be spoilers later on in this review. So, I'll pause here to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My one problem was a mild dissatisfaction with the ending or, rather, the events leading up to the ending. It is a minor problem, and something I can't quite articulate. Perhaps the answer will come to me while writing this review. I recommend the book. It is a noir western that contains some wickedly deadpan humor. I think it was a reviewer from the Los Angeles Times that said this would be the outcome if Cormac McCarthy had a sense of humor.

Set in the American west in 1851, the novel is about the notorious assassin brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters. They are hired guns for the mysterious Commodore, and their current assignment is to kill Hermann Kermit Warm because the Commodore claims he has stolen something that belongs to him.

I found a vague similarity to Of Mice and Men - two brothers, one a simpleton, the other his protector - but, in this novel, it is the simple-minded brother who is the narrator. Little else about this book reminds me of the classic, but I wonder if the author didn't take a kernel of his idea from that book.

The novel starts out with Eli Sisters, the narrator, contemplating horses, or his lack of an adequate one. No good western should be without horses, and this book is chocked full of them. But, unlike other westerns, this book doesn't treat them with gratuitous reverence.
At one point, Eli's poor horse has his eye scooped out with a spoon because of infection. It seems gruesome - and it is - but it is made less so because Eli does it out of dedication to the animal. Or as much dedication as he's capable of.

The story is Eli's inner journey. It's about the contradictions of life, where the dumb can sometimes be smart; how even the most simple-minded person can have something worthwhile to say, or can have an original idea; and that sometimes the protected becomes the protector - that roles change. We are not always just one thing.

The Sisters Brothers is written with plainness and humor. The subtle humor can be seen in the following exchange between the brothers. When an opportunity comes along to trade in Eli's old horse for a better one, Charlie says:

"You've had a tough time with Tub, I'll not deny it. A happy coincidence, this horse just walking up to meet you. What will you call him? What about, Son of Tub?"

Most of the book is made up of the brothers' trek to meet up with Henry Morris, the front man who is to find Hermann Kermit Warm so the brothers can do their ill deed. Along the way, they meet many interesting and bewildering characters: a dentist who has failed at everything else and introduces Eli to the wonders of tooth power and brush; a distraught, crying man that they meet more than once; an abandoned hapless boy with another ill-fated horse; and a gypsy that may, or may not, have put a curse on the Eli.

Along the way there is much killing, for a variety of reasons. After going into town to get help for a spider bite that Eli has received, Charlie summarizes the randomness, or providence of it all, as if there is no control over the killings: "...it is a spider to blame for the early demise of your group. A woolly, fat-bottomed spider in search of warmth - here is the cause of your deaths."

The crux of the novel is that Eli is tired of the killing life. He has started to contemplate the moral question. This puts a drag, a tug, on the brothers' relationship and provides the dramatic tension.

The brothers finally make it to San Francisco, where they are to meet Morris, but he's nowhere to be found. During their search, they meet a man walking down the road petting a chicken and strike up a conversation. The man goes on to say: "My feelings about San Francisco rise and fall with my moods. Or is it that the town alters my moods, thus informing my opinions? Either way, one day it is my true friend, a few days after, my bitterest enemy."

The brief description of San Francisco during the gold rush makes me wonder if the influx of people during that frenzied time didn't leave an indelible mark on the city, and California in general. Here are Eli's thoughts:

"Men desiring a feeling of fortune; the unlucky masses hoping to skin or borrow the luck of others, or the luck of a destination. A seductive notion, and on I thought to be wary of. To me, luck was something you either earned or invented though strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it."

Nothing is ever easy for the brothers, and so, when they go to the hotel to ask about Morris, the proprietress is loath to hand over the diary he unwittingly left behind. They resort to their usual methods of persuasion to garner the diary. It provides them with a clue to where they might find Warm and Morris, and to the Commodore's real motivations for having Warm killed.

Here is where the spoiler comes in, so stop reading now if you haven't read the book yet. I don't give everything away, but enough to give you warning.

Once they finally find the other pair, the story takes a twist. The brothers realize the Commodore lied to them. Warm didn't steal anything. In fact, it is the Commodore who wants to steal from Warm. Morris has already learned this and has turned his back on the Commodore to take up with Warm. But what are the brothers to do? They do what they generally do; let it play out and deal with things as they come.

The Commodore is after Warm's secret chemical formula for a solution that promises to reveal gold hidden in the bottom of streams. The brothers decide against killing Warm and become partners with the two men. They will help cull the gold from the river in exchange for a share of what they find.

The chemical solution works. They do find gold, but things go terribly wrong. And here is the point of my discontent. Charlie makes a critical error during the process. The mistake seems out of character. Although Charlie appears reckless at times, his action seems utterly thoughtless and without proper motivation. It is an action the author does not explain to my satisfaction.

The reader could take this error as Charlie subconscious desire to get out of the business. Even with all the gold in the world, he'll never be free of the killing life, unless he rids himself of the one thing that makes him who he is: his gun hand. But the reader is not given enough insight into the motivations behind Charlie's careless action to come to this conclusion, and I believe this is the reason the ending seemed flat to me.

While I find some of the brothers' behavior abhorrent, the author made me care about them. There was always humor to temper the morbidity and gruesomeness, and Eli's voice was delightful. The elements of magical realism sprinkled throughout add to the intrigue and poetry of the story.

Even with the one minor criticism, I found The Sisters Brothers to be an excellent bit of writing and a delight to read.

I've recommended this book to many friends. The Sisters Brothers was engaging, one of those "hard to put down" novels. I'm not very good at writing reviews, but if you love Westerns, or mysteries, or historical novels, or family sagas...this one has it all. Great, great book.

This is why I own a Kindle. Discovering Eli Sisters and his story is pure gold. The voice is authentic and perfect, the language so lovely, and the story original, surprising, and satisfying. Knowing the characters will linger with you long after you've finished their story is a mark of a great book, and I will be thinking of the Sisters Brothers for a long while to come. Bravo, Mr. deWitt!

..You will love The Sisters Brothers. I downloaded the sample chapter just because it was shortlisted for the Booker, but I didn't expect much. I never read westerns for example. I do like John Ford movies, but that's about it for me and westerns. Or was. The Brothers are a knockout. Hated to see the book end.

Now I am going to read DeWitt's earlier book about a bunch of barflies. It sounds depressing, but I was wrong before and am hoping to be wrong again.

...they would read like The Sisters Brothers.

A quick and somewhat easy read, The Sisters Brothers is an entertaining story that hitches the reader to two main characters traveling through the east coast wilderness, from Oregon to San Francisco, during the gold rush. deWitt clearly has a deep understanding of the subtle and not-so-subtle nuances that characterized much of the speech, actions, and ambitions of the many men and women who made up this wild frontier--which is entertaining enough in and of itself.

Beyond the setting and ancillary characters, deWitt has successfully created two main characters with an ambiguous depth that challenge the reader to peel back the layers as the story unfolds. Intentions are never as obvious as they seem, and the strange twists and turns that follow the two main characters through their journey have unforeseen and sometimes brutal consequences.

With surprises around every turn, deWitt has certainly crafted a fantastic story that is equal parts entertaining and thought provoking.

A different kind of Western. Even though there was violence, it was not glorified, but examined and sometimes explained as to why and it occurred as well as the background of those committing the violence. The story was okay, but the character development was more interesting.

This certainly was a different kind of western plot. Seems there might be some hidden messages in the thoughts and deeds of two killer brothers. Enjoyed the book though but mostly because it was an enjoyable mindless read.

Well done and author develops wry humour even though main characters not the " nicest lads in the world " ....kind of neatly presents vis stream of consciousness the inner workings of black characters .

This book was on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize and as part of a review show a British TV programme gave the population of a small village in England a copy of all the shortlisted books. The people of the village were then to read all books and vote for their favourite . This book was the winner in that village although Julian Barnes went on too win the real Man Booker Prize.

For a long time I shied away from this book thinking that I couldnt possibly like it considering the genre but
how wrong was I!

This is an incredible book with the universal and powerful themes of the fight between good and evil in all of us, how exactly does our environment affect us and to what extent and how far will we actually go for family. Patrick deWitt is an exceptional writer ,who like all good writers, has the amazing ability to transport you to the wilds of gold rush California within the least amount of adjectives.

Please please please do not be like me and get reading this book as soon as possible !

Given that the novel Sisters Brothers was the first e-book read for me, it languished in its digital format
for at least a month before I developed the habit of engaging a new technology for reading. Many of my life-stage, (i.e. fifty-one year old) cohorts would likely empathize with the doubt and apprehension associated with utilizing the new technology represented by the Kindle. The experience was well worth hurdling those barriers.

To the novel then.

It cannot be denied that Sisters Brothers is a vertitable "page turner". A rather trite conclusion but one that will be forgiven faster than the gunplay entwined in the story of two brothers and their journey into a heart of darkness aptly
set in Oregon and the California panhandle. The characters, settings and dialogue drill you into the saddle as an observer of
the human condition during a time when survival was not just a reality show concept. The social, psychological and political economies of the day are deftly explored at a steady cadence setting gallop that makes for a thrilling ride.

The love of violence of one brother was perfectly matched by the love of violence of the other, and, though different, those loves could only be quenched by the loss of the lightning-fast gun hand of one of the brothers.

In the end, Eli recognized his greed, and hence the reason for the killing lives of the Sisters Brothers, was really their service of the greed of their master, the Commodore.

Read the book because it is so masterfully written, because it describes the futility of great loss to such simple events, and to the thinness of winning despite causing great losses.

This novel is an unexpected masterpiece. Two brothers with the last name Sister have different temperaments but earn their money as partners who execute orders to kill or avenge in the era of the Wild West. This unlikely scenario is made realistic but the author's allowing the reader to know the inner workings of each of the men. The plot flows smoothly and believably with maturation in both men. And these gruff men understand the draw of family.

The reviews on the covers include words and phrases such as "weirdly funny", "darkly funny", "gallows humor" and at least two reviewers called it "hilarious." I was looking for something funny and I have always like western themes so I got this book. It has nice pacing, an ear for the way people actually spoke in the 1800's, two very odd characters with a lot of emotional baggage who persevere to "get the job done" and in some ways redeem themselves by the end, and an interesting story line to carry through to the end. It also has a lot of violence that doesn't speak well for those involved as human beings but given the hard living that went on in California in the 1850s, it really is not all that surprising. I found however no funny parts, weird, dark or gallows and if there was any hilarity in it, well, I just didn't find it.

I did enjoy the book and was carried along by the narrating character, Eli Sisters, the younger and more thoughtful of the two brothers, and his takes on situations. Quirky is a good word for the characters, and poignant is good for how one might feel at the end. The book has sufficient plot twists to sustain interest along with a style of dialog that is, in its own way, almost charming at times. But don't expect humor or hilarity.

I never would have considered that you could create a story about two hired killers, assassins, who might duly, critically consider the angles of each potential project .. with a degree of aplomb and even some, occasional diplomacy and debate. This is Gold Rush days, but the spoken word(s) seem to be nearly Shakespearian? The Sisters Brother, only, The Sisters Brothers would conduct their lives that way.

The cadence of the story told by Eli Sisters establishes his worldview and draws the reader ever closer to the life that mostly happens to him rather than one that he creates. By taking a step back from this narrative, the reader can instead easily imagine the typical characterization of an infamous gunslinger. The contrast is provocative and captures the reader with superb pacing of this bittersweet story.

The Sisters Brothers reads like a rampage. It's compulsively readable in the way the best potboilers are; I tore through it in no time at all. It tells the story of Eli and Charlie Sisters, two vicious gunslingers known for their effectiveness and ruthlessness. But en route to San Francisco to locate Herman Kermit Warm (their latest target), Eli starts to think about how he wants a different life. The bloody end of their last job seems to have unmoored him. "It came over me all at once then: I was not an efficient killer. I was not and had never been and would never be. Charlie had been able to make use of my temper was all; he had manipulated me, exploited my personality, just as a man prods a rooster"

Well, Eli is, in fact, a killer. And a good one. But it is true that his life has been unduly influenced by his brother's ambitions, and as he begins to move toward creating his own life everything the brothers have built begins to unravel. It's a suspenseful, violent tale, but one with emotional resonance. Eli's dreams of settling down with a wife and maybe work as a clerk in a shirt store may sound ridiculous to his brother, but it comes from a sweet and genuine need in his heart: to live a normal life and be loved.

There's a great deal of literary heft to be found too, though it is easy to overlook as you race through the pages. There's a good reason that The Sisters Brothers was a finalist for the Mann Booker Prize last year. I think I'll have to read it again sometime to piece together my thoughts on the crying man who keeps turning up, the significance of the 'curse' Eli believes has been placed on him, and other such motifs. But the observations I did pick up on were measured and pin-sharp. Setting the novel in San Francisco during the gold rush was a nice touch; it was the perfect setting to showcase the ruins that come from avarice and corruption. The city is portrayed as a foundation of hope and, all too frequently, the arbiter of staggering despair. As in Cormac McCarthy, there are also religious flourishes here and there: "I felt San Francisco standing behind me but I never looked back and I thought, I did not enjoy my time here."

But there's a burning hope for the future, too, and that is where The Sisters Brothers really shines for me. "Though I had never before pondered the notion of humanity, or whether I was happy or unhappy to be human, I now felt a sense of pride at the human mind, its curiosity and perseverance." That this hope is seldom realized, that most dreams and hopes are created only to be cruelly murdered, is a bleak message. But when the message comes in the form of an enjoyable potboiler, it's hard to feel too bad about it.

Grade: A-

See also: Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men (Vintage International)

It's a good, easy read. The storyline is entertaining and the characters develop well over time. The language is a bit too "posh" for the wild west but serves as a method for distancing the two protagonists from the rest of the individuals in the book. I like how geography plays an important part in the story.

Eli Sisters intimately shares his thoughts with the reader as he and his brother travel on a journey filled with unexpected turns and surprises. He's a unique and believable character, and it's incredibly interesting to look into his mind as he reacts to the crazy events that occur. The Sisters Brothers is a great novel that is poignant, philosophical, and darkly humorous.

His writing style is very sparse and very dry -- appropriate to the subject matter. The characters aren't particular likeable but they are fascinating and I found myself compelled to keep reading to see what would happen to them. Not like a mystery, but to see how they would respond to the different situations they encounter. It's sort of reminded me of Mark Twain, but with a more ominous undertone.

The Sisters Brothers is a novel that speeds along, full of quirky, likeable characters, a great plot, and prose worthy of all of the praise that has been heaped up on it. I enjoyed it immensely. Eli, the narrator, gets our sympathies from the beginning, and the journey with him and his brother Charlie is never dull or boring. It's good to read a book that, despite all the hype, actually lives up to its reputation.

This was short listed for the Booker Prize. A picaresque novel of two brothers' (family name Sisters) adventures in the American west. There are some funny bits and nice descriptions. It is a quick and enjoyable read and might include some ideas about redemption and the necessity and power of family, but that is a little unclear.

Totally different from any other books I have ready, based on the subject I didn't think I would enjoy it. I had it on my kindle unread for a while. Once I finally started it I could put it down, exciting, funny and a bit dark. A great read, well written and not your typical book, it had a bit of everything. It's probably not for everyone but I sure enjoyed it.

The Sisters brothers are essentially the Odd Couple revisited, except they both happen to be cold blooded murderers for hire. One is a psychopath, and the other is a detached observer with all kinds of melancholy remarks about their trade. They work their way from the Northwest down to California during the later years of the gold rush seeking a man who betrayed a wealthy and unscrupulous tycoon. The story centers on what they come to learn about this man, and how it affects their willingness to carry out their assignment. Once that gets resolved, they must get back to their benefactor and report their results. The writing is very good, very few misspellings and no blatant grammar errors. The style is a little slow and plodding but the surprising twists and turns do keep you pushing through to see how the boys make out.

I guess I'd call it a slow motion Western, and that's not meant in a derogatory sense. The author has a unique style and presents the usual cowboy days activities with a different perspective. I liked the book quite a bit and would recommend it to fans of the old West.

I was first attrached to this book by its title, "The Sisters Brothers." It took me a moment to figure out that "Sisters" was the last name of two brothers who are the central figures in this very original and compelling novel.

The novel, like its title, takes time to comprehend. It should not be read in a single sitting, or with the television playing in the background. It deserves full attention and a slow, thoughtful read.

It is, I guess, a western. But simply to categorize it as such is to miss the real point. It is a novel about loyalty, committment, morality, and the universal questions of meaning. It just happens to be set in Oregon and California in the later years of the 19th century. The Sisters Brothers are two of those literary characters who, once met, are never to be forgotten.

I understand that this is DeWitt's second novel. It promises great things to come, and I eagerly await number three.

deWitt does a Masterful job of paying homage to the Western genre while somewhat creating a sub-genre of his own. The tale is a sort of dark comedy told in a first-person POV in a matter-of-fact tone. Much/most of the humor is unintentional (on the part of the narrator) but quite intentional on the part of the author. It's a very quick read and very entertaining.

An unusual tale of two brothers and their adventure as killers. The story is told by Eli, the younger brother. It is filled with the thoughts and actions of his wistfulness, and his wishfulness. They lived, and worked, in an extraordinary time.

The Sisters brothers are essentially the Odd Couple revisited, except they both happen to be cold blooded murderers for hire. One is a psychopath, and the other is a detached observer with all kinds of melancholy remarks about their trade. They work their way from the Northwest down to California during the later years of the gold rush seeking a man who betrayed a wealthy and unscrupulous tycoon. The story centers on what they come to learn about this man, and how it affects their willingness to carry out their assignment. Once that gets resolved, they must get back to their benefactor and report their results. The writing is very good, very few misspellings and no blatant grammar errors. The style is a little slow and plodding but the surprising twists and turns do keep you pushing through to see how the boys make out.

I guess I'd call it a slow motion Western, and that's not meant in a derogatory sense. The author has a unique style and presents the usual cowboy days activities with a different perspective. I liked the book quite a bit and would recommend it to fans of the old West.

I was first attrached to this book by its title, "The Sisters Brothers." It took me a moment to figure out that "Sisters" was the last name of two brothers who are the central figures in this very original and compelling novel.

The novel, like its title, takes time to comprehend. It should not be read in a single sitting, or with the television playing in the background. It deserves full attention and a slow, thoughtful read.

It is, I guess, a western. But simply to categorize it as such is to miss the real point. It is a novel about loyalty, committment, morality, and the universal questions of meaning. It just happens to be set in Oregon and California in the later years of the 19th century. The Sisters Brothers are two of those literary characters who, once met, are never to be forgotten.

I understand that this is DeWitt's second novel. It promises great things to come, and I eagerly await number three.

deWitt does a Masterful job of paying homage to the Western genre while somewhat creating a sub-genre of his own. The tale is a sort of dark comedy told in a first-person POV in a matter-of-fact tone. Much/most of the humor is unintentional (on the part of the narrator) but quite intentional on the part of the author. It's a very quick read and very entertaining.

An unusual tale of two brothers and their adventure as killers. The story is told by Eli, the younger brother. It is filled with the thoughts and actions of his wistfulness, and his wishfulness. They lived, and worked, in an extraordinary time.

This story was compelling, moving, and strange at the same time! The characters were unique and unlike others I have experienced before. This book was refreshing, despite it being based on some unsavory characters!

Okay, I loved the narrator, his brother not so much. But then again, I wasn't supposed to like the brother. But there were many other fascinating characters to fall in love with for what they were. I'm not generally a lover of the Western genre of fiction, but I liked this book very much, and would be glad to read more by this author in future.

This book can be read superficially and be thoroughly enjoyed. However, this book can be read and analyzed as a piece of literature and be thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the characters, tone, pacing, and themes. It may seem simplistic to a casual reader, but I feel it is full of lessons and truths. I hope this author writes more novels soon.

The brothers Charlie and Eli Sisters are professional hit men employed by a powerful boss known as the Commodore, who orders them to kill certain individuals having supposedly wronged him in one way or another. Charlie is the more volatile and murderous of the two, while narrator Eli is a bit more philosophical and sensitive. It's 1851, and the brothers are traveling from Oregon City to wild and woolly San Francisco to murder a gold rush prospector named Warm, but not before obtaining his secret "formula." Along the way they have several unusual encounters with man and beast, and things get even weirder, and very, very tragic, after they reach San Francisco. The author's writing tone is pitch-perfect, the banter between the brothers and other characters always engaging, and the novel exudes a real respect and affection for animals such as horses and even beavers. A writer in the magazine Publishers Weekly recently compiled a list of his ten favorite Western-themed novels, which included this one. The Sisters Brothers may not be the Great American Novel, but it's deserving of your time and attention. There's a lot of food-for-thought within its pages, and it's a refreshing change of pace overall.

This story is of two quirky homicidal brothers (Ely and Charlie Sisters) and their adventures roaming the California wilderness during the crazy days of the gold rush. I loved it! I thought the characterization of the two, especially Eli, was superb. I hadn't expected to empathize with a hit man--an overweight hit man enamored with both the newfangled idea of tooth powder and any woman who showed him a bit of kindness.

This story, set in the wild west, is beautifully written, rife with dramatic irony, humour and insight. The story is character driven and the characters are vividly drawn. The sad state of their lives is slowly explained and the mystery of how they have ended up in such pathetic circumstances is revealed while their lives continue to spiral downward. Doesn't sound like a laugh a minute, but, it in fact is.
It is one of those books that you look forward to picking up and have trouble putting down. Loved this novel right through to the very last syllable.

Quick read! This book, for some reason, grabs you right out of the stable... if you'll pardon the expression. As long as you don't mind some things happening to the poor horse. Not the cruelty of the Sisters Brothers, just life in general... as you'll see if you read the book. Get it, you'll love it. If you don't have kids, you might finish it in one sitting!

This gun-slinging dandy is thrilling, weird, hilarious and gory. The story is set during the days of the California Gold Rush and follows two brothers (last name “Sister”) as they trek from Oregon to California in search of the man they’ve been hired to kill. The author does such a beautiful job of describing the grime and crime that you’ll feel like you need a shower and a shave after every page. Caution: Lots of killing in this one, so if “No Country for Old Men” was too much for you to handle, don’t even read the first chapter.

Revisionist myth, magic realism, humor as black as pitch, picaresque adventures, nihilism that gets transcended, an invented diction worthy of Burgess -- and a horse who will break your heart.

Wow. Just...wow.